Survey/Audience response

After creating my masthead I have decided that it would be a good idea to have some feedback of my audience on what masthead they prefer. Therefore I will show my audience my masthead ideas, both from the computer and the drawn ideas and ask them the following questions or similar:

• Which masthead do you prefer?
• Why do you prefer this masthead?
• What colour would you prefer this masthead if you do not like the present colour?
• If you do not like any of my ideas, could you give me an idea of the masthead design you would like?
• Would you like more than one colour on my masthead?
• How big do you think my masthead should be on the A4 front cover. 

I will then voice record or video record their responses so that I can use this permanent work to develop my masthead further.
Here is my 4 audience responses in which I completed on soundcloud:

From this response I have realised that there is a variety of different opinions and not a preference of which masthead they would like as an audience. Therefore I will incorporate a few different of the designs preferred and create an improved magazine masthead. I think I will include two colours in my masthead so that there is a level of 3D and detail into this.

October Feedback

Masthead Drawings

I have decided to take my research further and create some drawings of the my masthead, I have chosen the masthead UNPLUGGED as I feel this is the most appropriate name, but it is up to my audience when I create a survey I will find out if this is the most appropriate name.

I feel this font is not as appropriate as I would connote this as being more suitable for a rap magazine. However I feel this is the most appropriate with the colours, I think having a black outline to my masthead is effective and makes the red stand out. 

I think this font is more appropriate. This is because it is slightly strange and slightly Gothic to represent the genre but using the black font makes it look bold, and stand out to represent the feeling that the audience feel. However with the probability of my background being dark I may use a white backing of the masthead so you can see the outline of the masthead, being able to read it clearly.

House Style Ideas

From doing my research I have started to think about my own house style for my magazine. From this I have been onto www.cooltext.com and found some fonts I think would suit my magazine. This will help me to get an idea of the tone and mood of the magazine, which I can reflect within my coverlines, masthead and font of my headline.
I have used the name 'unplugged' for my example of how it would look as this is an idea of what I would like my magazine to be called. This is because it connotes the loneliness of the target audience and how they feel an outsider to society, and also that you can unplug a wire from a sound set, therefore it relates to music.

Types of fonts I am considering for my masthead:

 This font is similar to the font you would find from the band Iron Maiden which is a band which could be found within rock magazines and the rock genre. I have used the red to show that there could be dripping blood to represent violence and the grey would help to stand out. Also the font is clear with a slight twist so the audience will be able to read the masthead. 

This font I feel does well with my magazine as it would contrast well if I was to have a white background. The use of the rigid look is to help connote the irregular life of the targeted audience. The texture looks on the for that it is the skin of a reptile. This could represent a cold blooded creature in which some rockers like to feel, cold blooded= careless with their actions. 

I have a feeling that the background of my front cover will be dark therefore the white font will contrast well and be able to stand out. The use of the bits off the font are to show blood or wilting which can be referred to in rock magazine songs. This writing I think looks well on a music magazine, it is similar to the font used on the 'Rolling Stone' magazine which I think looks sophisticated and represents classic rock more. The website did not let me try this font in white but I would prefer this in white or red. The font is clear and slightly in italics to make it look smooth and sophisticated. Which maybe does not represent the tone and representation of my magazine. 

 I think this font is really good at representing my magazine, it is detailed, like the music you would find within the magazine, as there are a lot of instruments involved. Also it looks similar to the font you would see on tattoos of the models or band members in rock magazines. I would prefer to have the font red to contrast better with my main image.
This font connotes to me a gothic style which is more enchanted and dark, this could be a font which I could use for my masthead, It is clear to read but has a slight twist to the look. However I would think this font would need to be thicker so that I could change the colours to have a black outline with a red/white/yellow inside of the font. 

This is a good font for my magazine, it is clear to read and bold to be able to edit. This font is slightly 'damaged' which could be considered a feeling that the audience could connote and relate to. It also might help to represent the music as being violent as this looks 'damaged'

Other ideas for names of my masthead.

• Impact 
• Misunderstood
• Tombstone 
• voodoo
• Mosh
• Curable
• JUST ROCK

Colour Schemes

The colour red is a main attraction when it comes to rock genre, this is because it connotes violence, danger and blood. I am considering for my magazine to have the same font on each magazine issue but to change the colour scheme. I think that majority of the dark colours will go well but some bright reds will take away the depressing tone to slightly violent.

The two colours yellow and green are going to be less likely used. However if I were to create a Halloween special issue I would more likely use the colour green as it is a representation of the occasion. Also the colour yellow is a colour I would use but slightly as I feel it compliments black the least out of the colours due to the colour yellow being the most bright colour. I would consider using the dark colour to outline my masthead or on some of the coverlines. 

Media Theories

After thinking about my magazine, I thought I should take some of the Media Theories into consideration, which could change my ideas on certain features of my magazine. The most commonly used and dominant theory is Uses&Grafitications Theory

• Personal Identify- Being able to recognise the product infront of you. This includes the feautres that influence you, such as role models on the front cover as they might have a mutual feeling as you. 
• Surveillance - to be able to give the audience information and knowledge and them take it in and understand it. In my magazine this could be considered new albums, concerts and interviews that give new information so that people can know what is going on.
• Diversion- you should be able to enjoy the product you are using and to divert yourself from your own life. To lose yourself within the magazine. I can make my magazine enjoyable for the targeted audience by including things that they want to read about and 'lose' themselves in.
• Personal Relationships- Using the product and the information it has to create social convention of small talk with someone which then can be created to a full conversation about the same topic. If my magazine is exciting enough, other people will be able to use this product within their conversations

The next common theory for magazines is the Hypodermic needle theory or the magic bullet theory which is known as when the institution shoot or 'inject' the audience with the desired information. However people may see this as people becoming biased and putting opinions into the audience's head. This can be well incorporated within my magazine as I can use information in which the audience would want to know and shoot it all at them, but the use of language can be so strong that they will assume it is correct.

A theory that links into this theory is the 'media dependency' theory where the audience and humans in general desire the use of the media to live. This shows that a lot of the public can be influenced of what certain writers may feel as they believe everything they say.

Other less common theories which can be incorporated within my magazine are:

• Two-step flow- when the media introduces the audience to certain ideas and then can use personal relationships to dicuss this idea and form an opinion of their own. This links into the work we did when analysing a magazine as there were two different issues you could buy depending on the opinion you had. This is a perfect example of how this theory would be used.
• Limited effect- the idea that nothing in the media affects us because we are used to information being thrown at us by previous events. This is less likely to be incorporated within my work but could argue that instead of it being for limited effect it can be used for diversion as it is not for an informative purpose but to entertain.
• Cultivation/ Drip Drip Drip Effect- this is when the audience are given a certain connotation within the text due to the repetition that they are affected and influenced by it. We can use this within the double page spread that we create as we may want the audience to create a certain opinion of this article and through language and the text we can influence them to feel a certain opinion through repetition. 

House Style

I have been starting to think about house style for my magazine, therefore I have created research into house style of a magazine with the same genre of what I am doing for my magazine. What I have found out is:

• The masthead is the same font and style but the colour changes depending on the theme and the main image. The same font can show that this is the representation and it creased familiarity to the audience. 
• Majority of the headlines cover the middle of the main image this is so they stand out just as much as the main image. 
• The main image covers the masthead, majority of the time to emphasise the importance of the main image as this is what the main article will be about. It is the main selling point of the magazine that week. 
• The use of only 2 dominant colours that compliment each other.
• there is always a banner/PUFF
• The two parts of the Masthead area different sizes

Research and Analysis into magazine -KERRANG

Set up of shots

For when I go and take my photos, I have created a male and female chart/table of what photos I am going to take or experiment taking. I feel this is important to do otherwise I could become stuck with ideas when it comes to taking my photos. This ensures me to find different styles and gives me ideas to branch off. I may not end up taking these photos as the models may not feel comfortable but they are a start of what I could include. If I have more than one model I can use both of them in one shot.

Male chart

Female Chart

Below are photos from the internet I found in which I got inspiration from in order to complete my chart. All of these photos are quite likely for you to see within the front of inside a rock magazine as they have the same mean attitude connotation which you associate with rock music.

 This male is stereotypically seen as what you would see at the front of a rock magazine as he has tattos, piercings (Stretchers) a mean attitude and the use of drug abuse. I feel this does reflect well on the stereotype, however I would like to experiment to see if I can get the same perspective whilst having a different shot type, angle and lighting to connote. 

Features of a good photograph

In order to be able to take photos for my main image, I decided that it would be a good idea to find/ do my own research on features of a good photograph/shoot. I have created a visme which is a type of presentation website to help me show my findings.

 

Clothing stereotypes- Both genders.

Stereotypically, rockers have a unique style which is harder to buy on the high street, apart from certain shops such as 'Blue Banana' and 'Oasis Market'. Otherwise they have to result to online shopping such as www.grindstore.com And to become more specific to what I want as my main image I have came up with outfits that both of the genders will wear. However to not advertise specific brands/bands I have included non branded clothing.

Clothing representations - Kizoa Video Editor - Movie Maker

Inspiration for main image- Male

 In case the results of the survey say that my audience would prefer a male in their images, main image for my front cover, I need to prepare understanding with male rocker photos to see the conventions I would need to include. Majority of these males have tattoos to show their rebellious side, some are wearing ripped clothes, or no clothes at all but some juxtapose by wearing smart clothing, to make them look like the 'right man'
Not many of the models I saw have short hair, therefore I need to find someone who has a good set of hair as this will be something I can easily style. Majority of these males are wearing slight make up so they do not wash out their features on photographs. Some are wearing eyeliner on their lower lashes, and other eye make up to make the eyes stand out or just foundation and face make up so that they do not look too pale on the photograph. I will take this into consideration if/when I find a suitable male model for my magazine main image, None of the males are a size larger than a medium to show that they are a slight 'hunk' to appeal to the female audience and to look like an inspiration to males.

Preparation for photos - Make up and Hair

After looking at some photos of rocker female photoshoots I have decided that this would be good for my magazine as the key demographic of many rock magazines is men, therefore I want to appeal to more females therefore it would be in my best interest to have my main image as a female. But to do this I need to get a better understanding of how female rocker chicks look like, stereo typically. Therefore I have found some videos off Youtube of make up and clothing tutorials to make my model look more appropriate for the genre.

From this I have realised that it would be a good idea to get some temporary tattoos as this is what stereo typically a female rocker chick would have. I also could invest in some good dark make up to get a good affect when taking photographs. Finally to find a suitable model and find appropriate clothing for them to wear. In both of these videos, studded clothing is seeming the mode and purple/very deep red lipstick is something which would be better suited to use.

I have created my own make up ideas:

Inspiration and research for main image - Females

I have started to think about my main image and other key conventions of my music magazine. For this I need to find some ideas to branch from, in order to get the most appropriate and suited front cover for my chosen genre. I realised that I should find some photos of female models in 'rocker' clothing as this is an idea that I think would go well as my main image: Here are some photos that I feel will inspire me to with my main image.

I have decided based on these photographs that, the use of dark make up, dark clothing, creative hairstyles and certain urban backgrounds are seemed appropriate for the genre I am routing towards. Many of the photos I found from either google images or www.tumblr.com include only one woman as they want them to look isolated to reflect on their genre of music taste and lifestyle. Hats are also seeming to be popular and different types of accessories or additional objects such as musical instruments, alcohol or drugs such as cigarettes. This is to show they have a unique lifestyle. These are some features that I will take into consideration. However to make a successful photograph I need to consider the setting and background of the photo. Hence I have been online to discover inspiring places in which me and my chosen model (s) may decide to travel to, to trial out the success of photographing in this area.
I have created an Emaze presentation to explain my chosen places in which I could take photographs:

Survey

Independent research: Key conventions

After thinking about my thinglink, I have decided to do some independent research into the key conventions that a rock magazine needs specifically. In my opinion from doing my research I believe they need the following:

• Large Bold masthead
• Main Image of a band/Musician doing a particular action
• Freebies/ Poster giveaway
• A PUFF, for example 'The uk's only rock magazine' 
• Dark colours with the exception of white, red and yellow
• Coverlines
• Taglines
• Anchor text, either of a pun or a bands name.
• Extra Images, could be of bands faces
• Main image looking at the camera. 
• Barcode, issue number, date, price

(The image below is part of my research as this is something I found on Google) 

Improved magazine analysis.

Due to deciding my chosen genre to create a music magazine, I decided I need to understand more of the conventions of a rock music magazine. I have gone away from KERRANG and created a thinglink presentation of the music magazine 'rock sound' This is so I can get a broader understanding of what different institutions believe is needed on a music magazine.

Independent research: Targeted Audience

After thinking of my genre I did more research and found some information on the targeted audience and how I can apply this in my final magazine. However I will complete my own survey to find out exactly what my audience want. I was surprised on the research and results I got because I thought that less people would be interested that were older than 30.

Kerrang and rock Prezi

After creating the mindmap and choosing my genre I have decided to do some research on one of the chosen magazines of this genre.
I also have done my own research into the genre of rock and created a prezi of my findings.

Music genres and Initial ideas

After thinking of my school magazine, I thought it would be best to start to do independent research of music magazine genres. This is so I can start to develop my understanding of different front covers and their conventions. 

I used Bubbl to create this mind map as it will be very clear to see and helps me to find the exact genre that I want. 

Overall with this I have decided that I would like to do my music magazine based on the genre rock as this has a more precise convention and features in which the front cover should include. I also feel that it is clearer to connote conventions to the audience as there is a more defined criteria for the genre. I will start to research the audience to make sure I use the specific conventions to target the audience. 

I feel that I understand the rock genre better as it is something I listen to more and is more specific, whereas pop music is a genre which has a wider spectrum.

However I could not find a lot of magazines for a lot of different music genres, therefore I will create a list of different genres: 

• Country
• Electronic
• Soul
• Blues
• Hip Hop
• Funk
• Folk
• Easy Listening
• Comedy
• Grime
• Freestyle rap

Powtoon Presentation&Evalutation

After thinking about the next 3 questions in my evaluation, I have created a powtoon presentation to explain the journey/research I have created to achieve my final product.
To do this I watched the tutorial so that I could understand how to include different texts, videos and images to make my evaluation more interactive and informative. I think this is a very good website as powtoon can help take boring work and information and make it fun for people to look at.

Improved magazine front cover.

As part of this production I have decided to evaluate my final magazine front cover with the following questions:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of school magazines? 

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

How did you attract/address your audience? 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of school magazines?:

Also each of the coverlines each have something to do with the school, for example the new build. I feel that this helps develop the conventions of the school magazines as the majority of them are education related coverlines or are about the school as a whole. 

The colour scheme is of red, black and white as I think all of these colours contrast well to the main image and is of the school colours. This helps to develop the conventions as I have kept a formal look of the magazine front cover but have made it personal to the school and the students. 

The main image consists of two female sixth form students who are sitting in the hallway of the school. I have used a long shot to help with the mise-en-scene to show they are in a school area. But helps to develop the conventions of a school magazine due to the anchor text to relate to the main image, which is about the sixth form. However I have not made the whole front cover related to the sixthform as it is for the audience of the whole school therefore the coverlines make the front cover more related to the younger pupils and the school as a whole. However the main image does challenge the conventions to an extent as this photo looks very staged and less naturalistic and they do not look happy which may connote negativity but this helps to get people to talk more about the magazine making more people look at it. 

I have included the logo as not many other magazines have an actual logo, the recognition of the magazine is the masthead, therefore I have helped develop the conventions due to using the school logo. It also makes a more niche audience as this is purely for an audience of pupils of Plantsbrook school. 

www.mq.my/10ffd8 -Here is a link to my marqueed which is similar to thinglink which I have explained why I have put each of the conventions on my front cover.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of school magazines? 

How did you attract/address your audience? 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have made sure that all of the conventions of my contents page follow key conventions of a school magazine contents page so that I target my audience. I have used a semantic field of school vocabulary. This attracts the audience as the words may only be understood by the targeted audience. These are also coverlines of the page that are informative and clear to understand. Also I have made sure that it is easy for the audience to navigate through the magazine by using coverlines and including page numbers next to it so that the audience know what page to go to.

The images are not of actual students as this would not be as exciting for the audience than about the actual school which a lot more people will want to know.
I may have challenged forms of school magazines as I have included links to social media, this is so that the audience can follow updates on their phone about the school. However this could be taken negatively as the audience might feel they are being encouraged to use social media in school. 

Improvements and self assessment

After completing my final magazine front cover, I have decided that I should make a formal self assessment and based on the criteria of the magazine front cover, 

I decided I should award myself 41 marks which is equivalent to a C grade. 

This will help me with my magazine front cover as I can now make improvements which will improve my grade such as the person in my main image needs to be looking at the camera and the colours do not contrast as well with the main image, making them hard to see. Therefore I will change my main image so that this can make the front cover look better and clearer to read. 

Pupil response.

Here I have been given a review of my blog so far and have been given improvements to make in which I will complete within my blog. 

To do this I had to recognize what I could improve and then comment on what i will change.

I have said that I will start to look back through my work and make corrections and use more media terminology so that I can show that I have full understanding of the products and research I am producing.